Sri Lankan rebels see 'new perspectives' after tsunami

KILINOCHCHI, SRI LANKA - Tamil Tiger rebels have held their first talks with Norwegian peace envoys since the tsunami, saying the disaster opened up new possibilities for a solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict.

But chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham said the government must do more to get aid to Tamil-held areas.

"This is a sudden intervention of nature, for which we have to give total attention, leaving the political aspect aside," Balasingham said after talks between reclusive Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and Norwegian peace envoys on Saturday.

"We want to see this human tragedy ... open up new perspectives ... so that we can work out a mutual solution to solve the ethnic problem," he said after the talks in the rebel's administrative centre of Kilinochchi in the north.

The comments were in contrast to a rebel threat in November to resume a war for autonomy that killed 64,000 people after a three-year truce.

It took the December 26 tsunami, which the government says killed around 40,000 people across the ethnic divide, to give the long-time foes a common goal.

But Balasingham also said after the talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and peace envoy Erik Solheim that the government must do more to build trust.

"Mr. Prabhakaran has expressed his disillusionment that the government has not come forward with positive, confidence-building measures to create mutual trust and understanding, which is crucial."

"The government has to do more to win the goodwill of the Tamil people," he told a news conference.

The Tigers have accused the government of blocking aid to areas they control. They appealed to donors for direct funding, saying aid should be distributed equitably between rebel-held parts of the north and east and the rest of the country.

Norway's international development minister, who held talks with the government and the rebels, said the Tigers needed to have access to aid.

"It is of course important for them also to have aid channelled through their own sources and (to) their own relief work," Hilde Johnson told reporters in the capital Colombo.

The Tigers, who the United States have put on a list of banned terrorist groups, are running their own camps for thousands of displaced families with the help of local and international aid groups.

The government denies it is blocking aid and has even said on occasions that it acceded to rebel requests for help.

Analysts and diplomats say the handling of the tsunami clean-up could hold the key to peace.

"It is a window of opportunity, because this is really a disaster which has hit everyone, and if they can develop a sense of common aims, I think that will be beneficial in the long run as well," Norway's Petersen said.

The Tigers want the right to govern the north and east of the country, including the government-held Jaffna peninsula, to be enshrined in the constitution. They already have de facto control over most of this area and regard it as their homeland of Tamil Eelam.

Talks between the Tigers and the Sinhalese government of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga have been deadlocked for months over the government's insistence that the rebels agree to talk long-term peace first.

- REUTERS